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Pharmacy notes update

For those of you who have a copy of the Pharmacy notes I created here is an update.

please replace #93 with the following:

93. Tinctura Opii et Camphorata Paregoric Elixir
DESCRIPTION: Brownish-green liquid
USE: antispasmodic, diarrhea, nausea
LOOK-ALIKE: (1830 and before): green sugar crystals, freeze dried coffee, licorice flavoring, peppermint oil and water (after 1830): water, unsweetened ice tea with a small dollop of honey for the flavoring.
Dose: One to two teaspoonfuls four times daily, or once every six hours (as needed).

Bethard, page 190:
Paregoric, (1715 to date) also known as Camphorae composita tinctura, Tinctura opii benzoica, and Paregoricum elixir in British pharmacopioeas, was a camphorated opium tincture prepared by cold maceration of powdered opium (4.3 grams), anise oil (3.8 grams), benzoic acid (3.8 grams), and camphor (3.8 grams) for five days, occasionally shaking, in diluted alcohol, (nine hundred milliliters) and glycerin (thirty-eight milliliters). The resulting concoction was filtered and enough alcohol added to make the total volume 950 milliliters. Paregoric was (and still is) used for diarrhea, stomach cramps and coughs. The usual dose is one to two teaspoonfuls four times daily. Paregoric has a bittersweet, licorice-like odor and taste. In frontier times it was a popular sugartit additive for colic in babies. . .

Parrish, page 151-2:
Camphorated Tincture of opium is made by dropping the opium as finely divided as its condition will admit of, and the benzoic acid, camphor, and oil of aniseed, into a suitable bottle , and pouring the diluted alcohol upon them; after standing for two weeks, with occasional agitation, the tincture is filtered and the honey is added to complete it. The chief use of paregoric is for children, to whom it is given in doses varying according to the age of the child from ten drops to a teaspoonful. The adult dose is stated on the table. [fʒj to f℥ss.]. It is used in mistura glycyrrhizae comp., and in other expectorant medicines.
This tincture, in the Pharmacopoeia of 1830, was directed tobe made with a portion of extract of liquorice , which, as it gave it a dark color, resembling that of laudanum, was substituted in the last two editions by honey. It has a rich brown color, and a rather agreeable aromatic taste.

You could say paregoric was the light beer of laudanum, because the medicine strength did not pack the same medicinal anodyne punch laudanum did. Paregoric is still available as a DEA Schedule II controlled substance. See 71. Pilulę Opii for more information on the effects of the opium in paregoric.

Updated 9-25-08 nwb.
--------------------------------------------
Personally, I think the notes should be available to everyone, and everyone should be allowed to update them as needed. Harry Aycock is already working on adding the Confederate section for the medicines. All I ask is that you add your sources to the biblio, and sign your initials and the date at the bottom. Additionas and corrections can be posted here.

YOS,
Noah Briggs
Still looking for medical staff for After the Battle
bluemasscat at yahoo.com

Virginia,
Try this: click here (post # 32). This should be a start. It lists the 52 medicines in a U.S.Army Medicine Pannier. As to the remainder, you may want to contact Noah Briggs or, just search the Medical section of this forum.

Confederate Pharmacopia

As Noah mentioned I am working on tooling his list to the Confederate Medical Department in Field Service. The drugs I am placing on this list are ones which are documented through medical invoices to have been issued to Confederate Medical officers serving ing the field in the Army of Northern Virginia. If the item is listed in regulations or manuals but not in a surviving invoice, I am not including it in my updates.

Also please note that the Confederate Medical Department seems to have been using the names for drugs used in the 1850 Pharmacopia where the federal medical department seems to have been using the names for drugs used in the 1860 Pharmacopia.

Here are a few I have added based on invoices and/or record books for Confederate Medical Officers serving in the field in the ANV. If these are in duplication to Noah's list, my appologies. Also, my version uses the apothcary symbols which don't work here so you will see a mix of apothecary symbols and common english words for measures.

Hydrargyri cum Creta Mercury with Chalk
DESCRIPTION: Gray powder
OPERATION or MEDICINAL EFFECTS: Alternative, antisyphilitic
USE: In porrigo, and other cutaneous affections; in venereal complaints its operation is so slow and weak as to merit no attention. An alternative in visceral diseases of children, especially in chronic diarrhea and cholera infantum
LOOK-ALIKE: Gray chalk powder
DOSE: Gr. v. to Dram ss. twice a day, and any viscid substance

Pulveris Aloes Powdered Aloe
DESCRIPTION: dull brown or reddish brown powder
OPERATION or MEDICINAL EFFECTS: Cathartic, warm and stimulating, emmenagogue, enthel mantic, stomachic; hurtful in hemorrhoids. Aloes acts chiefly on the large intestines and produces catharsis by increasing peristaltic or muscular action, and not by increasing the secretions. It usually sits well on the stomach, promotes appetite and digestion and is one of the most valuable articles of the Materia Medica.
USE: n/a
LOOK-ALIKE: Aloe powder
DOSE: To act as a cathartic, gr. ij. to gr. x.; as an emmenagogue, gr. j. to gr. ij. twice or thrice a day. The form of a pill is the most convenient mode of exhibition, though the compound decoction is our favorite preparation.